The invention relates to a solid window cage for a cylindrical roller bearing, which cage is guided on the rollers, and more particularly relates to the pockets of the cage.
Cages of this type fabricated of plastic have been used for several years to an incrementing extent. These cages have holding projections or ledges in the flat surfaces of the roller pockets for preventing the rollers from falling out of the pockets after the rollers have been loaded in the cage pockets and before the loaded cage has been installed in the bearing. The holding projections extend either over the entire axial length of the web of the pockets or else the projections are provided only in the axially central region of the webs. In the former case, the snapping of the rollers into place in the cage is generally difficult since relatively stiff projections must be deformed elastically over their entire length axially of the webs when the rollers are snapped into place. During this assembly step, cracks may be produced in the cage, particularly in the corners between the webs and the circumferential end rings of the cage, because of the high stress. These cracks lead rather rapidly to the failure of the cage and thus of the bearing. Similar problems may be experienced with the latter embodiment referred to above. Although the rollers can be snapped somewhat more easily into position, this can also have the result that the rollers may drop out again. To counteract this, the holding noses on the projections must be of a certain height in the circumferential direction of the cage. For this reason, however, the cage is again subjected to stronger stresses upon the snapping into place of the rollers. Since corners with notch properties are present both at the transition places between the holding projections and the webs and at the transition places between the webs and the end rings, the cage may then be damaged at these places. The above difficulties in snapping rollers into place occur twofold in the case of cages whose pockets are produced by onepiece radial slides, and this increases the risk of cage cracking.